February 9, 2005

Video Killed the Radio Star

By | February 9, 2005

At four in the morning, when I should be reading, the television offers only three things: polish stoneware for sale, mammarian opulence of the Midwest (courtesy of Girls Gone Wild!) and music videos. Because QVC does not accept Cornell card and because I’m not a thirteen year old male with mother issues (thank God), I turn to music videos.

After indolently gaping at the boob tube (haha I said tube!) for who knows how long, I sat dumbfounded by sad, shiny faces until Motley Crue’s “If I Die Tomorrow” came along.

Devoid of its music, with words like, “There’s no one else since I found you,” the lyrics might be mistaken for a composition churned out by the same machine that spews out American Idol. The accompanying visuals however, elevate the deceptively sophomoric lyrics into a more than awesome ocular translation of not only the band’s pop resurrection but also of post-modernist funk. An ethnically dislocated girl, epitomizing post-colonial discontent, sits in the middle of a minimalist exhibit while the rest of the presumably corporate, black-wearing world walks by speedily. The post-colononial mascot gets sucked into the paintings around her, transforming the pretentious black and white abstractions into first, a Lichtenstein hallucination and then onto a series of surrealisms, recycling ubiquitous pop images of the nineties. In this one instant, the music video, at least for me, saves the song. That being said, here are a few honorable mentions (and one or two dishonorable ones) from my hours of MTV Late Night.

Damien Rice, “The Blower’s Daughter” Although a song merely featured in a soundtrack for the film Closer, the video for the song “The Blower’s Daughter” manages to visually uphold the song’s eerie blend of acoustics and strings and Rice’s vocal materialization of stalker-ish lyrics. Despite the video’s obligation to include scenes from the movie and its unimagined usage of stock images of a sepia-toned world with an empty field animated only by a clich

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ByFebruary 10, 2005

While the No. 15 Red (8-4, 3-0 Ivy) is loaded with potential 2005 national champions such as No. 1 Dustin Manotti (149-pounds) and No. 2 Travis Lee (133-pounds), senior Mike Mormile’s (125) consistency over the past few weeks has been crucial in establishing the team’s current success. “Mike’s been doing great,” said senior No. 10 Joe Mazzurco (174-pounds). “He’s made a lot of improvements. In terms of last year, he had a lot of matches where he’d lose by a point or two and he was in every match, but he would come out on the losing end. This year, it seems like he’s turned it around and is starting to come out on the winning end.” Mormile came out on top in two crucial matches over the past weekend — first defeating Hofstra’s Dave Tomasette, 3-1, before going on to beat Columbia’s Jeff Sato, 2-0. The senior’s contribution helped give the Red a huge win over the then-No. 11 Pride and Columbia in the evening. The road to success did not come easily for the wrestler from Monroe, N.Y. Mormile, who started wrestling in seventh grade after a family friend encouraged him to try the sport out, has had numerous injuries including a knee surgery which forced him to miss the entirety of his sophomore season. However, Mormile rebounded last year, posting a 28-23 record and qualifying for nationals after finishing in third place at the EIWA championships. This season, the senior has been even more impressive, going 19-4 thus far. “This season’s going well so far,” Mormile said. “I need to work on a lot of things with nationals coming up, but the confidence is there because I’m doing better than I did last year.” One reason for Mormile’s success is the quality of his practice partners, most notably, Lee. According to head coach Rob Koll, it is difficult to see how talented Mormile is when he wrestles the heavier and extremely talented Lee or assistant coach Steve Garland. Therefore, according to Koll, when Mormile goes into competition, the 125-pound wrestler is very well-prepared.

Article body:
Apathy is the most prevalent political problem on campus today, student leaders of major political organizations claimed. Liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, members of active political groups on campus agree that most students just don’t seem to care.